This is our team, aided by others along the way, who are attempting to uncover the scientific truth behind these mysterious books.

ANNA DHODY, MFS is the Founder and Executive Director of the Dhody Research Institute. She was previously the Gretchen Worden Curatorial Chair, Mütter Museum and Director, Mütter Research Institute of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia. She received her BA in archaeology from Boston University, Masters in Forensic Science from The George Washington University. A forensic anthropologist, Ms. Dhody previously served as an osteologist at Harvard University’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology and worked with the United Nations Development Programme and the Public Ministry of Peru to identify some of the estimated 69,000 “Desaparecidos” victims of state terrorism. Ms. Dhody is a member of the Vidocq Society, a Consulting Scholar at The University of Pennsylvania’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and was appointed a Fulbright Specialist in 2023 in museum studies and physical anthropology.

DR. DANIEL P. KIRBY has a PhD in Analytical Mass Spectrometry from Northeastern University, a MS in Bioanalytical Chemistry from Vassar College, and a BS in Analytical Chemistry from Siena College. After careers as an analytical chemist in semiconductor electronics, pharmaceuticals and academic research, in 2004 Dan turned his interests to conservation science and began investigating the use of mass spectrometry for the analysis of artists’ materials and is currently in private practice specializing in applications of mass spectrometry in art, cultural heritage, and wildlife forensics. On this team Daniel performs the peptide mass fingerprinting tests in the lab and teaches others how to conduct the same tests at their own institutions.

DR. RICHARD R. HARK is a senior conservation scientist at Yale’s Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage. He holds a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania and spent 24 years as a professor of chemistry before dedicating his efforts fully to the study of cultural heritage objects. Since joining IPCH in 2018, he has contributed to analytical projects on a wide variety of objects such as the Vinland Map, Tudor and Stuart portraiture, 15th-century tarocchi cards, and portrait miniatures. On this team, Richard acts as a liaison with potential testing institutions and then assists with sampling and testing.

MEGAN ROSENBLOOM is Collection Strategies Librarian at UCLA Library in Los Angeles. Megan served as a medical librarian for many years, where she developed a keen interest in the history of medicine and rare books. She was founding President of hte current incarnation of the Southern California Society for the History of Medicine and continues to serve on its board, as well as the Huntington Library’s history of medicine advisory board. Megan was the co-founder and director of Death Salon, the event arm of The Order of the Good Death, and a proponent of the Death Positive movement. Her best selling debut book, Dark Archives: A Librarian’s Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin, was a New York Times Editors Choice, won the 2021 LAMPHHS Best Monograph Award, and has been published in 5 languages.

Header photo by Scott Troyan.